One clinic even has a mobile pop-up offering a preliminary fertility blood tests.

Egg freezing isn't a guarantee of a baby — but it can be a good backup plan.

Curious about freezing your eggs to preserve your fertility? You don't need to sit in a doctor's office wearing a paper gown to get answers anymore.

These days, egg freezing companies are hosting events like happy hours, Q&A sessions, and even pop-up clinics in an attempt to educate new patients about fertility and the egg freezing process, the New York Times reported on August 29.

But the Times report indicates that the trend is still going strong in 2018. And now, clinics are attempting to connect with younger women, particularly those in their 20s and early 30s, since female fertility declines with age.

Egg freezing "used to resonate primarily with women in their late 30s," Susan Herzberg, the president of Prelude Fertility, a network of fertility clinics across the US, told the Times. "We are now targeting women in their 20s and early 30s."

"The process has never been better, faster or cheaper, or more likely to yield a better store of high-quality eggs," she added.

INSIDER spoke with some of the clinics offering egg-freezing events to learn more about the trend.

Some clinics are hosting happy hours and other events to teach women about egg freezing

Ova hosts happy hours to educate women about fertility. Courtesy Ova

Ova, a clinic in Chicago and one mentioned in the Times report, began offering egg-freezing happy hours earlier this year, Whitney Bischoff, the clinic's senior egg freezing nurse specialist, told INSIDER in an interview. The happy hours take place about once a month and are attended by 35 to 40 people each time, Bischoff said.

The response so far has been "absolutely amazing," Bischoff said. So many women signed up for one event that it had to be split into two nights. Another event went more than an hour past its scheduled end time, thanks to robust discussion among the women in attendance.

At each complimentary happy hour, attendees get a tour of Ova's facilities and mingle over food and cocktails. Then, the whole group gathers for a video presentation, remarks from the clinic's medical staff, and a question-and-answer session. It's all part of a bid to educate women — particularly younger women — on the option of egg freezing.

"We really want to [reach] the younger crowd because that's the best time to do it," Bischoff said. Female fertility declines with age, and the older a woman is when she freezes her eggs, the lower her chances of success when she goes back to use them.

Women attend an event at Ova. Courtesy Ova

Extend Fertility in New York City, another clinic noted by the New York Times, offers events with a similar vibe (minus the alcohol). Since late 2016, the clinic has hosted two-hour "Egg Freezing 101" educational sessions on weeknights, Kristen Mancinelli, senior director or partnerships and education at Extend Fertility, told INSIDER.

"We understand not everyone wants to come into the office as a first step, so these sessions are a great, non-intimidating way to learn more," Mancinelli said. "People often come with friends, co-workers, life partners, and even their moms."

Last summer, Extend Fertility also launched monthly Lunchtime Q&As. In these events, eight to 12 attendees sit around a table with a health educator who covers fertility basics and answers questions.

Mancinelli also said that younger patients have begun to seek information from Extend Fertility.

"In the few years we have been open, we have seen the average age of patients coming in for fertility assessment decline from 37 to 35, and we expect to see this trend continue both at our office and nationally," she said.

One company even has a mobile clinic offering free fertility evaluations

Kindbody, a clinic based in New York City, offers free fertility testing at its "pop-up" clinic in a van, the New York Times reported. Dr. Fahimeh Sasan, an OB-GYN and one of Kindbody's founding physicians, told INSIDER that the pop-ups kicked off in August. To date, there have been three in New York, with two more scheduled to take place this month in San Francisco. The company plans to schedule them regularly in the future.

During each pop-up appointment, health care providers offer information about fertility and an Anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) blood test, which is one way to measure fertility. A week or two later, patients are given their results and offered a complimentary half-hour phone consultation with an OB-GYN to discuss them, Sasan explained.

"A mission of our company is to normalize women's discussions of their health and fertility, and to kind of bring it out in the open, which is why we wanted to do a pop-up," Sasan told INSIDER.

And it seems demand for these discussions is high. Earlier this month, the company opened up 100 appointment slots for an upcoming pop-up and they were booked solid within 20 minutes, according to a post on Kindbody's Instagram.

In fact, social media is one part of the company's strategy to reach potential patients, Sasan added.

"We're using Instagram and Facebook and we know that that's where this millennial population lives now and we hope ... that it makes it easier for them to start the conversation with their friends, with their family, with their partner."

Egg freezing for the purpose of delaying childbearing is still a relatively new phenomenon. It wasn't until 2012 that the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) determined the procedure was no longer "experimental." The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) followed suit two years after that.

Finally, the eggs are retrieved in a quick, incision-free, outpatient surgery. Patients go under anesthesia, and a doctor extracts the eggs vaginally, using a needle guided by ultrasound. It's a procedure with very low risk for complications, Dr. Jane Frederick, a fertility specialist in California, previously told INSIDER.

It can be pricey, and it's often not covered by insurance

A single egg-freezing cycle costs $6,000 to $10,000, Frederick previously told INSIDER, though some clinics do offer cycles for as low as $4,000, according to the New York Times.

In general, this sum covers initial tests, injections, and retrieval surgery. In most cases, it's not covered by insurance, though some plans will cover egg freezing when it's done for medical reasons. Some people may freeze their eggs before undergoing a treatment like chemotherapy that irrevocably damages fertility, for example.

And there are other costs to consider. Some women opt for multiple rounds of freezing to retrieve a higher number of eggs. Facilities that store frozen eggs charge annual fees. too. (One woman interviewed by INSIDER last year said storage fees in her area ranged from $400 to $2,000 a year.) Finally, actually using frozen eggs — thawing them, fertilizing them with sperm, and transplanting a resulting embryo into the uterus — can increase costs further.

Egg freezing isn't a guarantee — but it can be a good backup

Egg freezing marketing can be controversial and may give women a "false sense of security," the New York Times reported. Some egg freezing marketing messages urge women to take control of their future and preserve their fertility. But the truth is that frozen eggs aren't a guarantee of a baby.

"I think a lot of women think, 'Oh, my eggs are frozen, I'm good! I don't have to worry about it.' But I do tell them that there's no guarantee here," Frederick told INSIDER. "It's just a backup plan."

But learning about egg freezing — perhaps at a happy hour, lunchtime Q&A session, or consultation in a mobile clinic — is the first step in deciding if it could be right for you.

"We know egg freezing is not for everyone," Mancinelli, of Extend Fertility, told INSIDER. "We do hope that all women can at least become educated on their fertility so that they are able to make informed decisions in line with their goals."